) THE SCOTTISH RITE FOR SCOTLAND R. S. LINDSAY, 33°, Grand Secretary General for Scotland Published by THE SUPREME COUNCIL FOR SCOTLAND ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITEISBN 0 906209 00 5 Dewey No. 366.160 Libeary of Congree HS-751-80 1958 © ‘The Supreme Council for Sottand IMPRIMATUR We sanction the printing and tue on behalf ofthe Supreme Council pee ee tr Bae Thketythird and Last Degree of the Ancient se eee Scouiah Rite of Frosmasonry of The Sntsh ite For Sting of Sc Linchay ya Honorary Were ef ou Supreme Sian dy iiety ts Grand Seertary General * “The above sanction is given to stimulate ‘urther research into the and sa development of the Ancient sd Accepted Scottish Hae ioe ot imply any octal adoption by our Supreme Counc Ficus caprenel fa the book: These remain the personal views of is nuthon .) Stam 3° C2) ‘Sovereign Grand Commander. 1) Boe 95° (See) ant Grand Commande Ged) Sszsou 33° \ History Sub-Committee, (Sed.) RHF. Mowennsr gg" J 6.) aasas HL, Bonnows ea Grand Secretary Geneve 67 Yous Prace, Eoispunou, 1 ‘rand July 1957 Printed in Seotand ty Walla Culoge & Son Li. Coupar Angos, Petre AUTHOR'S FOREWORD Wen I joined the Scottish Constitution of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, I believed from its title, as doubtless others have done, that I was joining a Rite which emerged geographically in Scotland. Wishing to know more about it, I soon found, as again others similarly situated must have done, that nothing con- cerning the Rite has ever been published in Scotland, Being forced, therefore, to read wherever I could find it anything published outside Scotland, I soon found not only that the advent of the Rite to Scotland has never been discussed in detail but that the documents con- cerning the Rite are few and scattered in comparison, for example, with Craft Masonry, and that where they do exist no two authors seem to agree either concerning them or as to the background into which they fit. It was farther obvious that the conclusions of authors depended entirely on what views they took concerning the early days of Speculative Craft Masonry in France, the date and place where the French Rite of Perfection was extended into the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and the authorship and true date of the Grand Con- stitutions of the latter Rite. What I have written concerning the Rite is the result of my own reading over a period of twenty-five years, and though I write primarily for the adherents of the Scottish Constitution of the Rite I ask neither them nor any other member of the Rite to accept my views but, by study for themselves, to form their own and not to be ‘content with accepting my views or those of anyone else who has written about the Rite. Had I been claiming ta write a “history” of the Rite T should have documented each statement. On the con- trary, as the evidence for a “history” does not yet exist, T present only the results of my own reading as a supple- ment to. the studies by members of the Scottish Constitution of the Rite and others of what has already been published outside Scotland concerning the Rite, and in the hope that I may have offered for their consideration some new possibilities on the points already mentioned, which have caused others who have alreadyvi AUTHOR'S FOREWORD written on the Rite to differ in their views. In doing this T have purposcly not documented my information culled from previous writers where such information is universally accepted; but, where I put forward my own Views on points of difference from previous writers, have given the sources on which I base my views or my reasons for differing. R. S. Linpsay 33° 16 Queen Srreer, Epivsurcs and March 1957 “THE SCOTTISH RITE” FOR SCOTLAND There were two different forms of Craft Masonry in the ‘earliest days of Speculative Masonry in France, and the object of this book is to show how the development of one of them led to a Supreme Council being set up in Scotland in 1846 for the control there of what is familiarly known to Freemasons as “The Scottish Rite”, or, to give it the full title by which it is known in Scotland, “The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite” of 33 Degrees. Having said no more than this, the immediate and natural question is, I. Way 1s tHe Rirz cattep “Scorrisn’? The obvious assumptions would be either that its Degrees originated geographically in Scotland or that the system first appeared there; but both would be wrong. ‘Take the Degrees first, and it will be found that the proper three basic Degrees in the Rite are the 3 Craft Degrees of Apprenti, Compagnon and Maitre borrowed from the original Speculative Craft Masonry of France. As a matter of fact, they are never worked in the Rite in order to avoid any intrusion on the recognised jurisdiction of the Grand Lodges of Craft Masonry. Instead, the Rite only accepts as Candidates for its remaining Degrees those who have received the 3 Deistic Craft Degrees under a Grand Lodge of Craft Masonry. Politically this may be necessary, but the result is most unfortunate for the Rite and its Candidates—for the Rite, because the Deistic Craft Degrees provide no basis from which the remaining 4 original title was “The Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite”, and s0 it suill remains in the U.S.A. In England and Wales it is knowa as “The ‘Ancient and Accepted Rite" to obviate any erroneous belief that It geo- {graphical birdhplace was Scotland.2 ‘THE SCOTTISH RITE Degrees of the Rite logically develop; and for the Candi- date, because the early Degrees of the Rite amplify the ‘Traditional History of its proper Christian French Master ‘Mason Degree, which is very different from the Tradi~ tional History in the Deistic Master Mason Degree re~ ceived under his Grand Lodge of Craft Masonry. As for the remaining 30 Degrees of the Rite, so far as he has gone in them, everyone with any knowledge of the Degrees worked in Scotland from time to time will realise from his ‘own experience that none of them are native to Scotland, and for the Degrees of the Rite beyond his knowledge, he ‘must take it on trust, until he gets them, that of them also none began in Scotland. Next, take the Rite as a system. As will later be seen, it first entered Scotland under a Grand Council of Rites set up in 1845, or one year before the erection of the Supreme Council now controlling the system in Scotland. Before that it had emerged in the U.S.A. in 1801, and had spread thence to the French West Indies, the British West Indies, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Brazil, Colombia, Portugal, and, if the date of the erection of the present Supreme Council for Scotland is taken as the criterion, England and Wales. Having disposed of Scotland as the geographical birth- place of the Degrees of the Rite, or of the Rite as a system, how does the Rite come to be called “Scottish”? The answer is that 25 of its Degrees were borrowed from a much older and French type of “High Degree” Masonry, which only emerged in France about the middle of the 18th century and which, when it did emerge, required an antiquity to substantiate its claims, which the Speculative Masonry of France, dating only from some fifteen years carlier, could not itself provide. Therefore it was claimed that these “High Degrees” had come to France from Scotland, wherefore they were familiarly referred to as 1 See Section XII, pp. 74-79- THE SCOTTISH RITE 3 “Ecossais”, i. Scottish, The remaining 8 Degrees of the Rite were imported into the Rite in the Western Hemi- sphere and were taken from various sources all familiar there, and, as those who devised the Rite considered them. suitable to appear side by side in the Rite along with the 25 French “Ecossais” Degrees without disturbing the general nature of the Rite, the whole Rite was labelled “Scottish”, i.e. Ecossais, to denote the type ofits Masonry. Clearly it will be necessary to discuss the nature of French Ecossais Masonry and the factors in French Masonry and otherwise tha: led to its emergence in France, but these must be postponed until something has been said of the beginnings of Speculative Masonry in France, its Lodges and the first of the French Grand Lodges. Unfortunately all these are largely a matter of what construction each person chooses to put on the isolated French and foreign sources which refer to the carly days of French Speculative Masonry, because, on account of her turbulent political history and the inter+ necine feuds between her rivel Masonic systems, France has no extant Masonic Minutes or other official Masonic records anything like contemporary with the beginnings of her Speculative Masonry. I. Tae, Beorestos anp Diversity oF Frencit Specutative Carr Masonry There is no reason to suppose that there were not casual Meetings of Freemasons in France before the appearance of the fist Lodge in France to hold regular Meetings in France. That honour is claimed by the Lodge Amitié et Fraternite, still working as No. 313 under the Grand Lodge of France, on the strength ofan alleged erection at Dunkirk in 1721 under Charter from the Grand Lodge of England; but the claim is not substantiated by anything in the records of the Grand Lodge of England, and must therefore be rejected. “Le Sgeau Rompu”, a4 THE SCOTTISH RITE ‘French Exposure first published in 1744, gives 1727 as the date of the first Lodge in France. Though the astronomer de Lalande wrote as late as 1773 and was therefore merely repeating the tradition of his day and not events of which he had any personal knowledge, he gives 1728 as the date in an article in the Encyclopédie d’ Yeerdon. Accord- ing to de Lalande, several Lodges appeared in Paris about that year, and he says that the earliest of them, dating from 1728, was mainly erected through the exertions of some British Jacobites resident there and that amongst these were a Lord Derwentwater,! “le Chevalier Mas- kelyne” # and “le sieur d’Héguetty”.* Of these, the second named acted until December 1736 by general consensus of the Paris Lodges as the first Grand Master in Frances but the first named, by whom he was succeeded in December 1736, was the first Grand Master of France by formal vote of the Paris Lodges. When the picture of French Craft Masonry becomes clearer towards the middle of the 18th century, two things are certain: (First) That France had two vastly different types of Craft Ritual (the one was Deistic and merely a French version of the Ritual of the 3 Craft Degrees as 4 Cares Radcliffe, brother of the Reman Catholic Jamey ged Earl of Derwentater, executed for his share in the Rising of #715, Charley, also Paptured then’ escaped to France, where, on the death of bis young nephew efi tygey he assumed the fereted tile of Earl of Derwentwater, Perse oe" pvinaly now a Coune Derwentwater, Bowbly aboat Tp Chai tres Yo Egan, weap dng th Rig of 174 208 fates Hector Maclean, sth Baronet of Duart, bora Calais 17035 occheled bis father in March 1716 and in 1716 was created by James THE SUGSUNIT a Lord and Teer uf Fuslanyne under dye te of Land Molea ‘Gr hie thers death he reuurned to Scotland and was brought up by hit Cate Maclean af Coll prior to ssdging in Edinburgh, Im +721 he Tet Einborahfnh hi education in Part apd except fr a itt Bit Sent bany n28 cnt einer in Prone ur, wee Teakkbmn nthe Tower of London but released in 1747 under the Act of Todemuly, Hl then returned to France, and hs death, unmarried, i said tehave an ieee a Rome im ps0 cr a a tHe was heat Be Talia snd Fee fe Sua oa beg wel versed in La Disinty, Civ Law, Mathematies, History and Polis "RisGhmans Hleggarty Exque, of whom nothing Knows ‘THE SCOTTISH RITE 5 developed under the Grand Lodge of England erected in 1717, the other was Christian and completely unlike the former both in setting and in Ritual content +); and (Second) That side by side in France two very different types of Lodge existed. The one, which merely for con venience is hereafter referred to as “Anglican”, practised but the 3 Craft Degrees on the lines which had been developed for these under the Grand Lodge of England. This type of Lodge accepted members of any faith which recognised a Supreme Personal Being. The other type, which for convenience is hereafter referred to as the “Gallic” Lodge, had 3 Craft Degrees and, above them, “High Degrees” of number and nature according to the tastes of the particular Lodge. The members of the “Gallic” type of Lodge were Roman Catholics. Accord- ingly the Deistic type of French Craft Ritual was that of the “Anglican” Lodge in France, and the Christian type of Craft ritual that of the “Gallic” Lodge in France. From one or more of the following it is generally assumed that the type of Masonry developed under the English Grand Lodge of 1717 was the original Masonry of France, because: 1. French Rituals, even those of “Gallic” Lodges, assign the origin of their Craft Masonry to England. 2. The Grand Lodge of France for its first Constitu- tions adopted those of the Grand Lodge of England. 3. For approximately the first twenty years of its “the tof French Rituals (Mgoa dated 1764) mentioned ia note 1, 1b contains “the English Recogniton™ ‘deaigned. presumably oF ember of French Lodges ofthis type to enable them to'work heir way into English Lodges and French Lodges ofthe other ype when these were ‘Working in thor Graft Degrees, Tintiys5 the leading “Gallic” Lodge in Pars (St John of Jerusalem) publahed set of mod Statutes for alopton by otber “Gallic” Lodges ‘hich eared t dg am: For the full ext ofthese see The Preenaton for June ad July 1855, Vol, SVIIL, pp. 319, 392, 345. One of thee Statutes enjoined Hace at Maw by Ue Raha final econ on St Jains Bay'ospmey Aner ence thn on the next dy the ew Maer foul old a Service forthe sepone of the 0 "heparted Brethren ot the Lodge me “pans6 ‘THE SCOTTISH RITE existence the Grand Lodge of France was known as, “La Grande Loge Anglaise de France”. 4. The Minuses of the Grand Lodge of England refer to its chartering of Lodges in France. What jis, however, forgotten is, in general, the early history of the Grand Lodge of England,t and, in particular, that when French Rituals claim an English origin for the Craft Masonry of France they could easily be referring to the pre-Grand Lodge Christian “Accepted Masonry” of Eagland which did not begin to disappear there until about 1750; that the Grand Lodge of France altered its pattern Constitutions, borrowed from the Grand Lodge of England, to suit its own circumstance; that, as will be shown later, the use of the word “Anglaise” in the title of the Grand Lodge of France is easily capable of a construction implying no tie with or subordination to any Grand Lodge in England; that the first reference in the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of England to its charter~ ing of a Lodge in France is in 1732, four years or so after the traditional emergence of Craft Masonry in Paris; and, finally, that as late as 1735 Dr Desaguliers was in Paris trying to popularise there the system of the Grand Lodge of England by using the Lodge Room of the Lodge chartered in Paris by the Grand Lodge of England in 1732 for a special working * ofits system on picked Candidates, both French and English. If it seems fiom the above that the original Lodges at Paris in 1727 or 1728 were much more likely to have been. “Gallic” Lodges than “Anglican” Lodges, whence did 2 Twat erected ia 1717 merely a. control centre for Lodges in Londons and is warsformation fon national Grand Lodge was amatter of gradual Extension sod evelopment Th 1735 (ce within three Years of the tadi~ ional emergence of Craft Masonry in Par) i¢ was only acknowledged by fp Ledges, of which 94 were in London and the retaining 9 in Bath, Bisco “Norwich, Chithener, Carmarthen, Cesport, Congleton and Chester (2) For ic advertsement of this meeting in the Si Jane's Eoenng Pot of aoth September 1725 see Gould's Hitory of Freemason} (in 6 parts), Wal. I, Chap. THE SCOTTISH RITE 7 they get their Christian Craft Ritual? As already mentioned, it was so unlike any of the Deistic Craft Rituals now in force, both in setting and in Ritual content, that it raises the question as to whether this original Craft Masonry of France might not have been indigenous to France. Against this view Bro. R. F. Gould was emphatic that all European Masonry, if traced far enough back, would be found to have had a British source. If he is right, and that British source was the Christian “Accepted” Masonry of England prior to 1717, about which little or nothing is now known, that form of Craft Masonry, whether or not it underwent change in France after its arrival there and before the first Paris Lodges to hold regular meetings appeared in 1727 or 1728, could easily have been imported into France by the many Jacobites trafficking with France after 1688 or by means of Marlborough’s troops during their campaigns on the continent of Europe between 1702 and 1711. IIL, Tue Granp Lopos of France 1735-1768 AND THE Earty GRranp Masrers oF FRANCE All the information concerning the start of a Grand Lodge of Craft Masonry in France which was available to Bro. R. F. Gould when he wrote his History of Freee masonry towards the end of the 1gth century consisted of: 1, Two statements in Dr Anderson’s Constitutions (and Ed. 1738) to the effect that the “Anglican” Lodges in France had thrown off the patronage of the Grand Master of England (p. 195) and that France had now a Grand Master of her own and also Constitutions which closely resembled those of the Grand Lodge of England (p. 196). 2. A statement in the Frankfiirter Grindliche Nachricht for 1738 that nothing was heard of Masonry in France prior to 1736.8 ‘THE SCOTTISH RITE 3. A statement in Der Sick Selbst (Frankfort and Leipzig 1744) that the “Earl of Derwentwater” was elect:d in 1736 Grand Master in succession to Sir ‘James Hector Maclean, “who had served some years previously”. 4. A mystifying passage in the tradition recorded by the astronomer de Lalande in 173 that “Lord Derwentwater was looked upon as Grand Master of the Masons; he afterwards went to England and was beheaded. My Lord Harnouester ? was elected in 176. . he is the first regularly elected Grand Master”. Unable to reconcile these various statements, Bro. Gould abandoned the attempt and assumed there was a Grand Lodge of France in 1738, when it is definitely known that the Duc d’Antin was elected Grand Master for life of all Freemasonry in France (i.e. of “Gallic” and “Anglican” Craft Lodges and of such “High Degrees” as then existed in France). The situation, however, can be said to have been clarified by a MS. of date “about 1736”, which belonged to the Collection of the Count Bernadotte in Belgium and was Lot 27 in an auction sale at Amsterdam held on 23rd to 25th January 1956 by International Antiquariat (Menno Herzberger). ‘The Catalogue de- scription of this Lot shows that a copy of Anderson's Constitutions (1st Ed. 1723) with changes made thereon “py the present Grand Master J. H. Maclean Knight Baronet cf Scotland” was given “with the consent of the Grand Lodge to the Grand Assembly held (in Paris) on eee arama eee ee “Deruenguiter"s Bro. J. B.S. Tuckett in his Paper_on Harnouester wpa sy ter Pe PEC NESS nem etre Oe et Meteo een et oye ae en Guyot mening peor eat often oc echie egret ois teas ee Beet es aGarme cara eti a oat Se recs Sree band a THE SCOTTISH RITE 9 a7th Xber 1735”; and that these altered Constitutions were approved and confirmed by “Lord Derwentwater, Grand Master, 27th Xber 1736”, and “‘countersigned by Abbé Morel, Grand Secretary”. Reading this along with (2), (3) and (4) earlier given, it seems that some time after the appearance of the first Lodges at Paris in 1727 or 1728, Sir James Hector Maclean was tacitly recognised as the leading Freemason in Paris and that he had an advisory Committee representing the Paris Lodges; that, with the idea of setting up a regular Grand Lodge of France at Paris, he, with the approval of his advisory Committee, called a General Assembly of all the Paris Lodges on 27th December 1735 at which he delivered a copy of Anderson’s Constitutions as altered by himself, and that he continued to act as unelected Chairman at subsequent meetings of this General Assembly until 27th December 1736; and that he resigned when on 27th December 1736 this General Assembly became the Grand Lodge of France and elected as its first Grand Master “Lord Derwentwater” with the Abbé Morel as its first Grand Secretary. If there is included its originator, the Grand Masters of the Grand Lodge of France down to its extinction in 1771 were: 2 -1736 Sir James Hector Maclean, 5th Baronet of Duart, who is unlikely to have been initiated in Scotland, as except in 1725 he never again visited it from the time he left it at the age of 18 in 1721. On the other hand, he could have been initiated in the first of the Paris Lodges of 1727 or 1728 which he was instrumental in starting. If so, he was initiated in a “Gallic” Lodge. 1736-1738 Charles Radcliffe, “Earl of Derwentwater”, who, it will be remembered, was a Roman Catholic and also instrumental in founding the first of the Paris Lodges in 1727 or 1728,10 ‘THE SCOTTISH RITE which was a “Gallic” Lodge. He also could have been initiated in it. 1738-1744 The Duc d’Antin (also Grand Master for life of all Freemasonry in France), who is said to have been initiated in 1737 in the “Anglican” Lodge at Aubigny. 1744-1771 Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Clermont and Prince of the Blood Royal (Grand Master for life of all Freemasonry in France), who, as a Roman Catholic and enthusiastic adherent of “High Degrees”, was almost certainly initiated in a “Gallic” Lodge, though the Lodge is unknown. As for the contention that the word “Anglaise” in the title of the Grand Lodge of France pointed to its origin as a body for the government only of the “Anglican” Lodges at Paris, or that the “Anglican” Lodges dominated it down to 1756 when the “High Degrees” ousted them and removed the word “Anglaise”, nothing seems further from the truth than these suggestions. It is known for a fact from the model Statutes of 17557 issued by the “Gallic” Lodge St John of Jerusalem at Paris that the “Gallic” Lodges sat side by side with the “Anglican” Lodges in the Grand Lodge of France before 1755, because in these Statutes the “Gallic” Lodges are told that the furnishings of their Craft Degrees and the situa tion of their office-bearers is to be the same as they are already well acquainted with in the Grand Lodge of France, and, looking at the originator of the Grand Lodge of France and his successor, there is no reason to suppose that the Grand Lodge of France was not a joint production of “Gallic” and “Anglican” Lodges in which they both sat from the start. Under these circumstances the word “Anglaise” in the title of the Grand Lodge of + See note 20m p. 5. THE SCOTTISH RITE 1" France should probably be regarded as meaning only that, like its English counterpart, the Grand Lodge of France was concerned with nothing beyond the 3 Degrees of Craft Masonry. That, in fact, is what alone i: did concern itself with, and never throughout its career did it make any claim to govern the “High Degrees”, though it did at times seek to prevent holders of “High Degrees” secking special privileges at meetings of Lodges, “Gallic” or “Anglican”, during workings of the 3 Craft Degrees. ‘What caused the word “Anglaise” to be dropped from the title of the Grand Lodge of France in 1756 was, more likely than anything else, national sentiment on the part both of its “Gallic” and “Anglican” Lodges. Before leaving the Grand Lodge of France, the following. points in connection with it should be borne in mind: « It was erected only by Lodges at Paris, 2. Its members consisted only of Masters of Lodges, “Anglican” and “Gallic”, at Paris, and no Pro- vincial Lodge had any direct representation in it before its extinction in 1768. 3. “Gallic” and “Anglican” Lodges at Paris sat side by side in it, almost certainly from its start. 4- It never claimed jurisdiction beyond the 3 Craft Degrees of “Gallic” and “Anglican” Lodges. 5. Its denial of direct representation to Provincial Lodges accounts for the large number of inde- pendent Mother Lodges in the French Provinces, chartering Daughter Lodges at home and overseas, and regulating for them as long as the Mother Lodge was able by its prestige to command their obedience, 6. The Grand Lodge at Paris had no powers by which it could enforce its wishes in the Provinces, and these wishes were regarded by Provincial Lodges only so far and so long as it suited them, 312 THE SCOTTISH RITE 7. After a short time the majority of the Lodges represented in the Grand Lodge were, it seems, “Gallic” Lodges and their representatives with impunity turned the meetings of the Grand Lodge into a bear garden by their faction fights with each other’s “High Degree” system and the constant attempt of each to get the Craft Grand Lodge of France subordinated to his own favoured “High Degree” system. By 1768 these faction fights had become so violent that the Grand Lodge of France was closed by order of Louis XV, and from then until the death of the Comte de Clermont in 1771 such control as there was over the Lodges in the Grand Lodge of France was privately exercised by him and his official Deputy de Joinville. IV. Factors propuorive or Ecossais Masonry iN FRANCE ‘The invasion of France by the “Anglican” system started in 1732 with one of the original “Gallic” Lodges going over to the “Anglican” system, and it must have been obvious to the “Gallic” Lodges that counter-measures would have to be taken speedily if they did not want to sec a foreign system dominating French Masonry, backed by an organised foreign Grand Lodge able to turn its attention overseas when as yet France had no Grand Lodge of her own, The first and principal factor pro- ductive of Ecossais Masonry appears, therefore, to have been political. If the “Gallic” Lodges were to check the invading system, they had not only to concentrate on what were likely to be the weak points of the “Anglican” system in French eyes, but to see that their own system supplied the deficiency. The points in the “Anglican” system likely to be unwelcome in French ideas were that the system was that of France’s hereditary foe; that it was comparatively THE SCOTTISH RITE 13 new; that it had committed itself to a Masonry of but 3 Degrees and so could not hold out any hope that the niceties of the finely graded French Society of the day could be catered for under the “Anglican” system; that the settings and Ritual of these 3 Degrees lacked the colour, glamour and chivalric appeal latent in the French nature; and, finally, that the French sense of logic would not be content with mere Substituted Secrets as the end and be-all of any Masonic System. From the point of view, therefore, of the “Gallic” Lodges, the obvious counter-measures to the “Anglican” invasion were: 1, To set up a Grand Lodge in France, which seems to have been done in 1736. 2. To superimpose on their own Craft Degrees addi- tional Degrees of a colourful and chivalric nature, with attractive and imposing titles and decorations bestowed in each, and sufficiently numerous to preserve where necesary the relative distinctions expected by Society. 3. To ensure that in the course of these additional Degrees there should be restored to the Candidate joining a “Gallic” Lodge that which the “Anglican” system professed to have lost. To furnish the additional Degrees with an ancestry which would not only eclipse the “Anglican” system in antiquity but stretch so far back-into the distant past as to give the impression that they might well ‘embody the true Masonry of King Solomon’s Temple builders in its pristine purity. Obviously the Speculative Masonry of France, if it started about 1728, could only be the last and shortest link in this chain; but France’s ally Scotland. could be used to good purpose. She had Masonic institutions and records going back into the mists of4 THE SCOTTISH RITE time. Moreover, in Scotland there was a strange little place called Kilwinning which, for no apparent, reason, had a Lodge clearly recognised in Scotland as having some peculiar sanctity judging by the number of Speculative Lodges in Scotland, in- cluding among them the more “speculative” of the Scottish Lodges, which had either sought Charters, from Kilwinning or had borrowed its name. Further, this Kilwinning Lodge had lost its ancient records and was in no strong position to deny anything which might be “fathered” on to it, as would be the ancient Lodge of Edinburgh which had its records back to 1599. Accordingly the additional Degrees of the “Gallic” Lodges were, when they emerged, declared to be “Ecossais”, and their arrival in France to have followed these lines: (a) Palestine by way of Rome to Scotland follow- ing the destruction of Herod’s Temple by the Romans in A.D. 60. (8) Preservation in Scotland until their merits were revealed by the valour of these Scottish Masons during the Crusades. (6) Dissemination of this true Masonry by the returning Crusades through Europe. (d) The subsequent extinction of this Masonry throughout Europe except in Scotland, where its chief seat became Kilwinning. (©) Its importation again into France by the Scottish Jacobites sheltering there. ‘Nowadays such a genesis would not stand scrutiny for a ‘moment; but it must be remembered that Masonic re- search was still a thing of the distant future when the Ecossais Degrees appeared in France, and that any THE SCOTTISH RITE 15 suggestion linking Speculative Masonry with King Solomon’s Temple was capable of ready acceptance. Tt should further be said that whereas Masonic research is how of many years standing it has disclosed no evidence whatsoever pointing either to the Ecossais Degrees having been devised by the Jacobites as an instrument for their political ends or to Scotland having been the cradle or asylum at any time of these Degrees. On the other hand, it is well within the bounds of probability that Scottish Jacobites, resident in France and members of “Gallic” Lodges, did have a hand in devising the Ecossais Degrees, and also that they welcomed their adoption by their Lodges on account of the way in which these Degrees extolled their native land and the principles of loyalty to King and Country which had resulted in their exile from it. Another factor which aided the development of the Ecossais Degrees was a religious one. In 1738 Pope Clement XII pronounced the first Papal Bull (‘In Eminenti”) against Freemasonry on the grounds that it admitted persons of no matter what religion and sect. Before, however, the powers of the civil arm and of the Church could be employed against Freemasonry in any istrict, the Bull had first to be promulgated by the head of the Roman Catholic Church in that district. Clearly from the grounds of objections to Masonry stated in the Bull the “Anglican” Lodges in France, which admitted persons of no matter what religion and sect, stood in greater danger than the “Gallic” Lodges, in which the membership was Christian, and Roman Catholic at that. Therefore the Bull was a deterrent to any Roman Catholic in future joining an “Anglican” Lodge in France. It is also possible that the existence of the Bull may have shaped the form in which appeared the French Rose Croix Degree and ensured for it that place of eminence which it held in the Masonry of France./ 16 THE SCOTTISH RITE / V. Eoossais Masonry: Ins Emercence, anp Natur ‘The present author is unaware of the existence of any Ritual in French bearing a definite date prior to 1764? which contains Ecossais Degrees, meaning thereby the additional Degree adopted by “Gallic” Lodges to counter the invasion of the “Anglican” system, and further Degrees above these later added to the original Ecossais Degrees because they were the natural sequels of the earlier ones, or because they were tagged on by mere whim of a “Gallic” Lodge which was practising an Ecossais system. Nevertheless, because the Ecossais idea was first publicised by an oration delivered at Paris in 1737 by a Scotsman, Michael Andrew Ramsay (see succeeding Section VI), and because Ecossais Degrees in considerable numbers are first found in the systems of “Gallic” Lodges from about 1740, the publicist of the idea is often credited with the manufacture of the Ecossais Degrees that emerged after his Oration, The facts, however, are: 1, That there are many more Ecossais Degrees than ever entered the system of any “Gallic” Lodge. ‘That though the larger “Gallic” systems seem to have adopted, more or less, the same early Ecossais Degrees and departed from each other only in the higher ranges of the Ecossais Degrees, there were alo short Ecossais systems all over France bearing the name of the particular locality in which they were favoured, e.g. Ecossisme de Montpellier, &c. 3. That though the initial adoption by “Gallic” Lodges of Ecossais Degrees began about 1740, the process went on until about 1760 or s0. Although on these grounds it seems that the original Ecossais Degrees were probably the work of a central body in Paris and to some extent possibly ready for issue + Mgor in the 1906 Bd. Library Catalogue of the Grand Lodge of Scotland's “Morison Collection”. 2. THE SCOTTISH RITE 17 before the Ecossais idea was publicised by Ramsay’s Oration in 1737, the subsequent ones adopted between, 1740 and 1760 were probably the work of various persons or bodies in different parts of France, because the length of that period and the number of Degrees adopted into “Gallic” systems during it discount the possibility that only one person or central body was concerned. Associated with the Christian Craft Masonry, which existed in England? before the erection of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 and continued in many parts, of England until after the middle of the 18h century, there were “High Degrees”. Little is known about them, except that they were Christian; that they included a ceremony known as “The Passing of the Bridge”; and that they were of the “Guild” type in which the Candidate ‘was received as a Fellow or Master into an inner circle of Fellows or Masters without attaining any higher level in Masonry than that which he had when he started. There is no reason why these early English Christian “High “Degrees” should not have been known to those in France who devised the Ecossais Degrees which began to appear there in 1737 or shortly before; but until more is known, concerning the Ritual and subject-matter of the early English “High Degrees” it is not possible to say whether anything was borrowed from them by the French Ecossais Degrees. Certainly no one should be misled into finding any similarity between the two on account of the word * Though a Christian setting for Craft Masonry alto existed in Scotland before the erection of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1736, no trace bas yet been found there of “High Degrees similar to hove in England associated ‘ith it As “High Degrese’” were alwayy imported into Scotland and the ‘hier importers of them during the second half of the 18th century, the Miltary Lodges, were not in existence belore 1736, these “High Degrees", ifthey did ext in Scotland, would probably have been worked (a) in some Centre such a8 Edinburgh which had frequent contacts with Englands (@) bya Lodge there which had no operative fluences; () and in which the members were ofa type likely to be frequently in Eagland. The ewo Lodges in Edinburgh mecting all these conditions were Canongate Kilwinni (now No, 2) and Kilwinning Scots Arma (struck off the Roll of the Grat Lage of Scotland in'r752). Unfortunately in both these eates the Minutes {or the appropriate period are missing.18 THE SCOTTISH RITE “Harodim” associated with the early English “High Degrees” and the word “Heredom” associated with the French Ecossais Degrees. The word “Harodim, meaning “The Rulers”, attaches to Craft Masonry and therefore, appropriately, to the English “High Degrees” connected with early English Craft Masonry. The word “Heredom”, signifying the Mystical Mount of Attainment, is, on the other hand, appropriately found in the Ecossais Degrees in which the Candidate ascends both in perfection and in Masonic rank. ‘Attempts have been made to trace a uniform pattern running through all Ecossais Degrees by which it might be possible to classify all Degrees with such a pattern as Ecossais, such, for example, as the mention of Sword and Trowel in conjunction or the discovery of a Word in a vault or cavern. Unfortunately any such method breaks down because there are far too many extant Ecossais Rituals in widely separated parts of the world for any exhaustive examination of them by one man in his life- time. Moreover, it is certain that many Degrees, for no other than reason that they appeared as make-weights in a system, such as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite that claimed over-all to be Ecossais, were thereby labelled as Ecossais. If, however, a system is examined as a whole, a fair idea may be formed from certain pointers as to whetheritis oris notan Ecossais system. These pointersare: (a) The appearance in the system of a claim to be superior to any other type of Masonry by reason of having preserved Masonry in its pristine purity and thereby to be able to communicate the original ‘Master Mason Word. (8) Combined with (a) or alone, a Traditional History claiming a genesis on the lines set out in the fore- going Section IV. 2 Seep tt THE SCOTTISH RITE 19 (6) Combined with (a) and (6), or either of them, or alone, the inculcation of a measure of Science coupled with the strictest attention to the observ- ance and practice of the Masonic Virtues (in particular, of Constancy, Fervour and Zeal) and the application of the whole in the service of King, Country and Religion. VI. Rawsay’s ORATION OF 1737 PUBLICISING THE Ecossais IDEA ‘The relevant portions of this oration, delivered before an assemblage of Masons in Paris on 21st March 1737, will, be found in the Appendix. The giver of it was Michael Andrew Ramsay, Chevalier of the Royal and Military Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, initiated into Free- masonry, on his own statements,1 sometime before 1730, and at some period before his death in 1743 Grand Chancellor of the Grand Lodge of France. Son of a baker in Ayr, and born in 1680 or 1681, Ramsay was educated locally and afterwards at Edin- burgh University. Leaving the latter in 1709, he tutored. the children of the Earl of Wemyss for a month or two prior to joining Marlborough’s forces in Flanders. Assailed in 1710 by religious doubts, he left the army and settled in France, residing with Fénélon, Archbishop of Cambrai, by whom he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. In 1794, following the death of Fénélon, he moved to Paris, where he divided his time between the editing of his life of Fénélon and acting as tutor to the young Duc de Chateau-Thierry. At Paris he received his 2 To his fiend Von Geusau, tutor to the Prince of Reuss, * Bro. D, Murray Lyon states he was not initiated Bro. Re FF, Gould considered he might have been initiated in England when there between 1727 and 1730; but found nothing. Ax he became a Roman Gatholic shorty after 13r0 and from then unt 1727 wasin France, be may. have been initated there at a casual meeting of Masons of the *Gallic™ ‘ype.20 THE SCOTTISH RITE Order of St Lazarus from his friend the Regent Orleans, who was Grand Master of the Order. Towards the end of 1724 Ramsay went to Rome and for the next two years acted as tutor to Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his younger brother Prince Henry, later Cardinal York, While in Rome, he told his friend Von Geusau he had received a private offer to become tutor to the Duke of Cumberland, which he declined on the very honest grounds that he was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Shortly after his return to Paris, Ramsay left for England in 1727 to stay, it is said, with the family of the Duke of Argyll and Greenwich. Whilst in England he Joined the Gentlemen's Society of Spalding in March 17293 was clected a Fellow of the Royal Society in December 1729; and in April 1730 received the honorary Degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford. There- after returning to Paris, he married there an English woman of means and became tutor to the Prince de Turenne, son of the Duc de Bouillon—but, at his own request, without salary, so that he could resign whenever he wished. In addition to his Life of Fénélon, he wrote The Travels of Cyrus and The Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion (published posthumously). He died at St Germain-en-Laye in 174g. It is generally agreed that he was a good scholar, sensitive, introspective, kindly, honest, above all intrigue, and, if he had any vanity, that it was confined to his membership of the Order of St Lazarus. Broadly, the Oration falls into two sections, the second of which occupies the great portion and, being novel, scems to have led posterity into assumptions hardly justified when the Oration is considered in detail. The first and smaller section of the Oration, appealing for the ‘co-operation of Masons in France in the production of an Encyclopaedia of the Arts on a world-wide basis and already projected in England, pointed out that Masonry THE SCOTTISH RITE ar was the one international tie remaining since the dissolu tion of the brotherhood that combincd the nations of Europe in the Crusades. Developing easily from this came the second but greater section of the Oration outlining on ‘chivalric lines how Masonry might have been imported throughout Europe as the result of the Crusades—in fact, the general idea of Ecossais Masonry. Attracted by this original statement of its idea and its consistency with the contents of the Ecossais Degrees, which shortly afterwards emerged in France, posterity has hailed Ramsay as the conscious or unconscious inventor of Ecossais Masonry and the personal originator of a so-called Ecossais Rite de Bouillon, which, unfortunately for the latter claim, never existed. As to being the inventor of Ecossais Masonry, there is extant a letter by Ramsay to Cardinal Fleury, the Foreign Minister of France, written when the Oration was being censored for delivery and commending Masonry in France as worthy of encouragement by the Minister. The suggestion did not appeal to the Minister with perhaps the natural effect on one so sensitive and conscious of authority as Ramsay. He delivered his projected Oration and immediately afterwards withdrew into obscurity so far as Masonry was concerned, and his name nowhere appears in or is connected with any of the Ecossais Degrees which he is supposed to have invented. Surely, had he done so, his name would have been perpetuated in them notwithstanding his personal disappearance from Masonry. Far more likely is the suggestion of Bro. R. F. Gould, who said, “I do not believe this speech first suggested addi- tional Degrees, but I think it probable that it aided in- tending inventors in their previously conceived designs.” 1 What better choice could there have been than Ramsay to “put over” such a preconceived design if that design consisted of additional Degrees of a Christian and chivalric nature, extolling Science and virtue applied to > istry of Freemason (ix 6 Part), Vol. IT, Chap. XXLV, p. 91a2 THE SCOTTISH RITE the service of King, Country and Religion, and supposedly ‘emanating from Kilwinning in Scotland? Ramsay indeed exemplified the whole of them in his own person. Take the Oration itself. In various places it makes reference to the grounds carlier mentioned on which “Gallic” Masonry would have to combat the invasion of “Anglican” Masonry, and no one has ever suggested that Ramsay was their inventor or that the policy underlying them was not in train before 1737. In the opening words of his speech (not quoted in the Appendix), Ramsay said, “The noble ardour which you, gentlemen, evince to enter into the most noble and very Illustrious Order of Freemasons is a certain proof that you already possess all the qualities necessary... .” From this it is clear that the Oration was specifically addressed to distinguished Candidates on the point of becoming Masons, and it is inconceivable to suppose that Ramsay could have sprung on such an audience a new and sudden idea of his own concerning the Masonry they were joining. Later in his speech he refers to the patron of “Our Order” being St John the Baptist. That saint was the patron of Christian “Gallic” Masonry, whilst St Jobn the Evangelist (originally the Patron of Operative Masonry in Britain, and later of its Deistic Masonry) was the Patron of “Anglican” Masonry. Finally, it will be noticed in the concluding passages of Ramsay’s Oration that, when he refers to “Anglican” Masonry as having merely “the letter and shell” of Masonry, he does not say the remedy would be the re- passing of the Royal Art from Britain into France, but that this remedy, now beginning (j.e. of Ecossais Masonry), should make France the centre of Masonry. Surely he was referring to something already commenced and known to his audience, which he was only publicising, and not to something of his own invention, which was as yet beyond their ken, THE SCOTTISH RITE 23 VII. Rire or Perrection iv FRANCE ‘The first Lodge at Bordeaux was L’Anglaise erected in 1732 and chartered in 1766 by the Grand Lodge of England. Throughout its career its Masonry was “Anglican”. In 1740 an offshoot from L’Anglaise started another Lodge at Bordeaux named La Frangaise. Its Masonry also was “Anglican”, but only until 1760 when it absorbed its own Daughter Lodge (next mentioned) and thereafter practised the latter’s “Gallic” Masonry and “High Degrees”. In 1743 Etienne (or Stephen) Morin of San Domingo, who figures so largely in the next section (VIII) in connection with the development of the Rite of Perfection in the Western Hemisphere, and others originally initiated in La Frangaise hived off and started a new Lodge, La Parfaite Harmonie. The Instructional Catechism of the 2oth Degree of the Rite of Perfection, which later became the 20th Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, ascribes the start of La Parfaite Harmonic mainly to an unknown Scotsman of noble birth who had resided for many years at Bordeaux, and to a Frenchman “expert in all the Degrees of Freemasonry”, who was almost certainly this Etienne Morin, holder of the Chair of La Parfaite Harmonie in 1744. La Parfaite Harmonie from its start was a “Gallic” Lodge with Ecossais “High Degrees” and, as such, one of the earliest Lodges in France to adopt Ecossais Degrees. Its original Ecossais system developed in time into am Ecossais system of 25 Degrees (including 3 Craft Degrees), which became, known throughout the world as “The Rite of Perfection”, Accordingly the cradle of that Rite was Bordeaux and its Mother Lodge La Parfaite Harmonie. Whilst it is not possible to say how many of the Degrees of the Rite were incorporated into it at Borceaux, and how many elses where in France, before they were adopted for the Rite by its Bordeaux section, this can be said of the outline24 THE SCOTTISH RITE of the Rite and its growth above its initial Craft Degrees: 1, That the first portion of the Rite was completed before 1751 and was later known as its “Ancient Masonry” because it dealt with King Solomon's Temple down to its destruction. 2, That, including the 3 Craft Degrees, this first portion consisted of 14 Symbolical Degrees given in Lodge and that they included a 13th (“Royal Arch of Enoch”) in which the Candidate recovered what, in the 14th (‘“Sublime Elect Ecossais Knight”), he ‘was told was the original lost Master Mason Word. 3. That the second or final portion of the Rite, later known as its “Masonry Renewed”, consisted of the remaining 11 Degrees of the Rite that dealt with the Second Temple of Zerubbabel, the Third or mystical Temple of Christ, an alleged original dis- semination of Masonry throughout Europe by the Christian leaders returned from the Crusades, and the necesiity of a new Crusade in the service of God undertaken with the same unity that had existed amongst the original Crusaders until finally lost when the Knights Templar were suppressed in the rth century. 4. That this second or final portion began in 1751, when there was added to the Rite a 15th Degree (“Knight of the East, or of the Sword”), which had originated in Paris a year or two earlier and which dealt with the Second Temple, and that it was completed by 1762, when other Degrees of the Rite in this portion included such Degrees as its 18th (“Rose Croix”), its 2gth (Originally “Knight Kadosh”, later known in the Rite as “Knight of the Black and White Eagle”) and its 25th and last (“Prince of the Royal Secret”). THE SCOTTISH RITE 25 5. That in the second or final portion of the Rite the Degrees were conferred in several bodies named “Chapters” or “Councils”, to which were allotted one or more Degrees and which, in some cases, supervised as well the “Chapter” or “Council” below. 6. That the eventual Constitutions of the Rite, drawn up in 1762, contemplated no person or authority above a local Council of Princes of the Royal Secret, which, in its own district, controlled not only its own Degree but also generally all the Degrees of the second or final portion or the Rite and the various Chapters or other Councils which supervised and worked them, Of the Bordeaux section of the Rite little is known, except that it exported the Rite (when it had probably no more than the 14 Degrees comprising its “Lodge” series) to the French West Indies in 1748 and appointed local Inspectors there responsible to Bordeaux; that its position as the cradle of the Rite was recognised when in 1762, as will be mentioned later, the Constitutions of the Rite were drawn up there; and that it then had a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret which shows that the Rite had then achieved its full complement of Degrees there and that this Council then spoke there for all the subordinate Degrees (including the “Lodge” series of Degrees) and all subordinate Chapters or Councils of the Rite in the district. After 1762, however, nothing more is heard of the Bordeaux sections of the Rite, and everything con- cerning the Rite in France emanates from Paris. The direct cause of this scems to be attributable to a clause in the Constitutions of 1762 by which it was agreed that there should be set up a Sovereign Grand Council of the agth Degree with a Grand Secretary General and two subordinate Secretaries (one for Paris and Bordeaux,26 ‘THE SCOTTISH RITE and the other for the Provinces and Overseas). As this Sovercign Grand Council was, in fact, already in existence at Paris, let us pass over to Paris to trace the beginnings of the Rite there, the gradual assumption of the headship of the Rite by Paris, and its subsequent history there. About 1748 the Lodge of St John of Jerusalem * at Paris was practising as its system the then 14 existing “Lodge” Degrees of the Rite of Perfection. Also about then there appeared in Paris a separate Chapter for the working of an entirely new Degree called “Knight of the East, or of the Sword”, which, in 1751, became associated with the Rite of Perfection as its 15th Degree. Whilst things were in this stage at Paris, so far as the Rite of Perfection was concerned, there was opened on 24th November 1754 by the Chevalier de Bonnville? an exclusive “High Degree” Chapter of Clermont * in a fine building in the Parisian suburb of Nouvelle France. Including the 3 Craft Degrees, it worked in all 7, of which one was Ecossais and at least one was Templar or had a theme concerning the Templars. Subsequent systems which soon afterwards appeared at Paris proved more popular, and the Chapter of Clermont with its system was displaced there. ‘The first of these rival systems emerged at Paris in 1756 and was that of a body familiarly referred to as “The Knights”, though their fall title was “Knights of the East, Princes and Sovereigns of Masonry”. ‘Their membership was much less exclusive than that of 2 This was the Lodge which in 1755 fued the model et of Statutes for tae by any Lodges practising cosas "Ladge™ Degrecs clewhere which fared to adopt tiem (ee note 2 on p- 3). An examination of dhese will show tleazly that Bro, Rc ® Gould wa i efror when in his ist of Fremasony {int parts), Vo. If, Chap. XXV,p. 14 hestated hat St Jobe of Jercsalere ‘wag an alternative name forthe Craft Grand Lodge of France. T Abo named Comte de Benouvile 2 Called alter the then reigning Grand Master for life ofall French Freemasonry Lous de Bourbon Comte de Clermont Ta ryg8 the “Clermont” system was imported into Berlin by French prisonervotwar, Thence it spread throughout north Germany until swept ‘way there by the advent of the Templar Rite of the Strict Observance. THE SCOTTISH RITE 27 the Chapter of Clermont, but they claimed that “as the Ecossais Masters are the Grand Superiors of the Masonic Order [i.e. superior to Craft Masons] so are the Knights of the East the hereditary Princes of the complete Order”. From this it is clear that they practised 3 Craft Degrees and a selection of Ecossais Degrees above the first Ecossais Master Degree of “Secret Master’. Beyond that, little can be said except (2) that their system had at least 10 Degrees (including the Craft Degrees)—or at least 3 more than the Chapter of Clermont; (8) that their system differed from that of the Chapter of Clermont in having no Templar Degrees or Degrees based on a Templar? theme; (¢) that in each locality their system ‘was controlled by a “College” bearing the name of its President; and (d) that the chief of these Colleges at Paris was named the College of Valois and that in 1762 this College assumed the Title of “Sovereign Council of the Knights of the East”. In 1758, only two years after the advent of the “Knights”, a rival to their system appeared at Paris before which the “Knights” eventually dis- appeared about 1768, but only after a long and bitter struggle between the two systems, carried even into the Grand Lodge of France by the representatives there of Craft Lodges favouring one or other of the rival systems until the scenes caused by them there forced Louis XV to close the Grand Lodge of France in 1768 for three years. thas been suggested that the new system which appeared in 1758 was the recrudescence in a new guise of the Chapter of Clermont because the latter had been ob- literated by the “Knights” and was secking revenge; because the membership both of the Clermont Chapter and of the new system of 1758 was more aristocratic than the membership of the “Knights”; and because the Chapter and the new system had no objection to Degrees 2 The word “Tempaz” inthis connection is used by Bro, Ry F. Gould in his itsiny of Freonazon, but the possbiity of the word "Crusader" being more correct should be kept in mind. ©28 THE SCOTTISH RITE of a Templar (or Crusader) nature or theme, whereas the “Knights” had. That idea does not commend itself to the writer. The Chapter of Clermont, according to De Lalande writing in 1773, was still working at Paris in 1760, and it is difficult to conceive that when the “Knights” appeared in 1756, only two years after the opening of the Chapter of Clermont, any of its members would have foreseen an ultimate ruin by the “Knights” of the Clermont system, which two years later spread through Germany, or any necessity within two years of the appearance of the “Knights” to abandon their own Clermont system, invent a new one and with it take the field under a new title against the “Knights”. On the contrary, when it is found that after 1758 there is no further mention of the Chapter at Paris which worked the Degree of “Knight of the East, or of the Sword” and that the new system which appeared at Paris in that year included it as its 15th in a Rite of Perfection of 25 Degrees, it seems simpler and more likely to suppose that the advent of the new system at Paris was due only to the fact that the Rite of Perfection in 25 Degrees was then ready to center the lists at Paris, Further, there seems to have been some connecting link between the full title of the “Knights” and the full title of their rivals, familiarly called The Emperors”, which was “Emperors of the East and West Sovereign Princes of Masonry”. In the first place, the title of the latter seems to claim a superiority over the Knights of the East resting on some difference between their respective systems, Proceeding further on that assumption and remembering that the “Knights” claimed to be heads of Ecossais Masonry but rejected all Degrees with a Templar (Crusader?) nature or theme, it will be noticed that the title of the “Emperors” includes the words “East and West”, and it was the 17th Degree (Knight of the East and West) of their system, the full Rite of Perfection, which first introduces its Crusader and THE SCOTTISH RITE 29 ‘Templar theme Degrees. But to revert again to the history of the Rite of Perfection at Paris after it appeared there with its full complement of 25 Degrees under the “Emperors”—by 1761 the Rite in Paris was no longer governed by a Council of Princes of the Royal Secret. Instead there was at the head of it in Paris,a combined body bearing the title of “The Grand Lodge and Sovereign Council of the Sublime Princes of Masonry”, the “Grand. Lodge” portion being the Lodge St John of Jerusalem at Paris, now made responsible for the Lodge Degrees of the Rite above the Craft Degrees (ie. the 4th to 14th Degrees inclusive), and the “Sovereign Council” portion for the remaining Degrees from the 15th to 25th both inclusive. It was this body which in 1761 granted to Etienne Morin, as will be narrated in the next section (VII), a Patent with powers he could never have got from the Bordeaux section of the Rite and which was of such importance in the development of the Rite in the ‘Western Hemisphere. Again in 1762, it was this body which took the initial step in appointing nine Com- missioners representing the Paris section of the Rite to ‘meet at Bordeaux nine Commissioners representing the older section of the Rite there and to draw up Con- stitutions in that year for the Rite, which became its basis wherever it existed over the globe. Incidentally, these Constitutions of 1762 are of the greatest importance still in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, because, when the latter (an extension by 8 Degrees of the Rite of Perfection) emerged, its own Grand Constitutions bearing date 1786 declared that, in so far as not contrary, the Constitutions of 1762 for the Rite of Perfection were to be valid also for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, In 1766, before the closure of the Grand Lodge of France, “The Grand Lodge and Sovereign Council” of the Rite of Perfection at Paris, under a new title of “The Sovereign Council and Mother Lodge of the Grand Globe of France”